From Silverado to Civic

[regor]

Back in December, I was offered my dream job which required a 81 RT commute from 500 feet to 4000' everyday for work (No freeway, pretty much all mountain driving). I knew that my 01 Silverado would just not cut it (MPG, of course), so I bought a new Honda Civic LX sedan at the end of December.

So I went from 18-20 MPG with my Silverado to 36-41mpg with my Honda.

I haven't done any modifcations yet (Other than a scangauge) to the Honda. I plan on switching to Mobil-1 when I hit 10K. Probably put some "tufoil" in it (I've used it in all of my vehicles for the last 20 years and have always seen a MPG increase. So call it snake oil, I know this stuff works).

My average MPG has been between 36 and 41mpg and I hope that the recently installed scangauge will get me to increase that MPG.

I'm looking forward to being a member and learning how to increase that MPG. I find it a constant game as I try to figure out how to increase my MPG.

[SVOboy]

Welcome to ecomodder! What model year is the civic? Nice car, that one,

[Daox]

Welcome to the site. With a little work you should easily see 40+ mpg consistently.

[Lazarus]

Welcome to the site. Nice. Cut your gas bill in half. How have you been attacking your commute with the climb and is it an standard?

What's "tufoil"

[regor]

It's a 2008 with a auto transmission.. Got 6500 miles on it right now. Tufoil-http://www.tufoil.com/

As I stated, I've been using it for a long time. Never had a problem with the engines. When I had a manual transmission, I used it in that and shifting was smoother.

How do I attack the commute? about 2 miles from my house is the Poway grade to Hwy 67. I take it slow and easy (Scangauge reports nothing more than 16 MPG on this climb). Speed limit is 55 and I'm doing 40-45 and pissing off everyone behind me. The drive to Ramona, probably an average of 60MPG until I hit the lights and even timing the light, drops the MPG down to 30 or less. Then I start the grade to San Ysabel. I probably average 25-30mpg. I got a nice hill to coast to right before san ysabel, then the grade to almost Julian where the MPG drops again. When I get to work, the scanguage reports a average MPG of around 33mpg. On the way home, I have lots of downhill, of course, and when I pull in my driveway; my average for the day is normally between 39 and 40mpg, constantly. I give myself 1.50 hours for the commute (One-way), so I'm babying the civic, but I'm still to work in just over 1 hour.

I look for forward to reading adn hearing your suggestions to improve my MPGs. As I stated, I find the effort to increase MPGS to be a game. There has to be a way to get more and I'm just waiting to hear of a anotehr suggestion to try.

[regor]

One last thing-

I'm open to suggestion to how to improve my MPGs. I drive my wife and others crazy by how I baby my civic and silverado and contour for the MPG, but as I stated, I think of it as a game. I just wish I could figure out how to get even better MPG on this commute. Hopefully I'll read/hear some possible suggestions here.

I love trying to get the highest MPG possible.

[cfg83]

regor -

Welcome to EM! You've made a great choice with the Civic. It sounds like you've also generated a great baseline to compare MPG mods and strategies.

*If* you had a manual transmission, I would suggest a fuel cutoff switch for the downhill (keeping engine in gear to maintain power steering and power brakes), but you may be getting that for free with the Civic. What is the Civic's instant MPG on the downhill when the TPS is 0? If it's 9999, then you have built-in fuel cutoff.

CarloSW2